Medical information may be obtained either from the interior of a body or non-invasively from its exterior. Apart from non-contact devices, a sensing probe is being brought in a physical contact with the biological tissue. Such a probe may incorporate some kind of a sensor. Examples of the sensors include a microphone, measuring gauge, light emitters and detectors and a temperature transducer. In some applications, the probe is attached to the patient body on a continuous basis, while in other applications the probe shall be brought intermittently into a contact with the biological tissue (skin, e.g.) to perform some kind of medical procedure, such as measurement or treatment. It may be important for various reasons (accuracy, consistency, rate of the sensor's response, etc.) to bring the probe in contact with the patient body in a consistent manner that is substantially independent of the operator training and operation, patient behavior and other uncontrollable or unpredictable factors. In other words, the probe shall move toward the patient body with a relatively pre-defined speed and come in a contact with a predictable force. One example that is given here by way of a reference is a medical probe with an electromagnetic control taught by Warming in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,021. An example of a need to produce a consistent pressure by a probe is a body surface temperature probe of the U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US-2005-0043631-A1. This probe may produce too much of a variability if it is pressed to the skin with a random force thus making an inconsistent thermal contact and modulating the subcutaneous blood perfusion. These factors, in turn, may affect the measured skin temperature. Controlling a rate of the probe deployment toward the skin and the force of a contact is important for such a device.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a means for making a fast and consistent contact between a medical probe and the patient tissue.
Another goal of this invention is to find a way of the probe to be deployed at the moment of forming of a contact between the skin and the medical device.
And another goal of this invention is to develop a method of an intermittent and consistent interaction between the medical probe and the body surface.